Abstract. Miftahudin, Putri RE, Chikmawati T. 2020. Vegetative morphophysiological responses of four rice cultivars to drought stress. Biodiversitas 21: 3727-3734. Each rice genotype develops certain morphophysiological responses to drought stress. The study aimed to analyze the morphophysiological responses of vegetative aspect of four rice cultivars to drought stress. A 10% Polyethylene glycol-6000 was added to a Yoshida nutrient solution medium as a drought stress stimulant for four rice cultivars, i.e., IR64, Hawara Bunar, Situbagendit, and Inpago 10. Fourteen-days-old rice seedlings were grown on the media with and without drought stress treatment for 9 days, and morphophysiological characters of vegetative aspects were observed. Drought stress inhibited the shoot growth of cv. Hawara Bunar, but increased shoot growth of cv. Inpago 10. The physiological responses in the form of leaf relative water content, proline, malondialdehyde (MDA), and total chlorophyll contents in cv. Hawara Bunar was inversely proportional to those of cv. IR64 showed an inferior response to drought stress. The rice cv. Hawara Bunar might develop better response mechanisms to drought than that of cv. IR64. The physiological responses of cvs. Situbagendit and Inpago 10 were in between the other two cultivars. We conclude that the variation of morphophysiological responses to drought stress among rice cultivars is an indicator of tolerance capability to drought that could be used as early-growth selection criteria in rice breeding programs for drought tolerance.

Abstract. Putri RE, Mubarik NR, Ambarsari L, Wahyudi AT. 2021. Antagonistic activity of glucanolytic bacteria Bacillus subtilis W3.15 against Fusarium oxysporum and its enzyme characterization. Biodiversitas 22: 4067-4077. Biocontrol of Fusarium oxysporum, a phytopathogenic fungus that causes plant wilt can be approached with cell-wall degrading enzymes such as ?-glucanase. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prospective ability in glucanase production from several soil bacterial isolates and to characterize its ?-glucanase activity of ammonium sulfate precipitation, and to determine its antifungal activity against F. oxysporum in vitro. Twenty bacterial isolates were screened qualitatively and quantitatively as ?-glucanase producers. The results showed that the prospective isolate W3.15 can produce ?-glucanase on glucan agar as the selection medium. From 16S rRNA sequences identification, the isolate belongs to the genus Bacillus, closely related to Bacillus subtilis. The enzyme activity of the ammonium sulfate fraction of isolate W3.15 is optimum at a pH of 7 and temperature range of 60-80oC. B. subtilis W3.15 exhibits high inhibition against the mycelial growth of F. oxysporum and significantly reduced fungal biomass.

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Soybean Fusarium wilt and root rot disease caused by a necrotrophic ascomycete pathogen, F. oxysporum, triggered severe damage to the plant tissues and organs and impacted heavy losses. Biocontrol agents, Bacillus subtilis, were commonly used to produce a broad spectrum of antifungal substances and were gradually used in biocontrol studies for plant disease management. Investigation and determination of the inhibiting mechanism of antifungal substance produced by B. subtilis on F. oxysporum should be done to protect the soybean plant. This study revealed that basal nutrient broth (NB) gives the best antifungal activity. The stationary phase of the bacterial growth curve was obtained on two days of cultivation and showed the maximum antifungal activity against F. oxysporum. Ethyl acetate (EA) extraction of bacterial supernatant generated crude EA extract, which showed half inhibition (IC50) at 306.42 µg/ml obtained from the dose-response regression curve. Post-treatment mycelia of F. oxysporum with bacterial extract were demonstrated as hyphal deformation followed by malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation. Furthermore, cellular leakage on fungal cells that may be triggered by antifungal compounds from strain W3.15 occurred. Last, the related antifungal compounds were predicted to be epicatechin and benzophenone from the LC-MS/MS analysis of crude EA extract. Accordingly, the biocontrol agent B. subtilis strain W3.15 promises a strong potency for biofungicide development.